Standing sentinel to change

Spread majestically across a green expanse that
seem to ridicule the constant traffic flowing around it, and
standing sentinel over another breathtaking monument that is the
Vihara Maha Devi Park, the Town Hall of Colombo is more than a brick
and mortar edifice that is home to the capital city’s Municipal
Council. A monument in the political history of Sri Lanka, it has
been a silent observer of the country’s passage from a colony of the
British Empire to a democratic socialist republic. And as the
Colombo Municipal Council, the oldest local government body in Sri
Lanka celebrates the 150th anniversary of its voyage in local
government politics, focus also shifts to this monument of a
building, which came into existence years before the Legislative
Council got its own building, the old Parliament constructed in
1930.